Car-sharing lets motorists rent out their wheels

So many people rented this car that their by-the-hour payments covered the author's monthly lease payment. A new online service allows car owners to rent out their vehicle by the hour or day. The service works best in areas where would-be customers can take a train or bus to within walking distance of your house. ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The first time I rented my car to a total stranger, I was anxious. I'd only "met" my renter a couple hours earlier through a text.

I knew her name was Laura, but I didn't know her age. I knew she lived in my neighborhood, but I didn't have access to her driving record. All I knew for sure was that Laura was about to come to my house, having been approved to rent my car through RelayRides – a personal car-sharing service that lets owners rent their vehicles to other licensed drivers by the hour, day or week.

I had agreed to let Laura take my Nissan Leaf for three hours. In exchange, she paid me $14.40.

Some of you may question the wisdom of handing over the keys to a $35,000 car for the equivalent of a couple Subway sandwich meals. But consider this: I, like many owners of the country's 260 million registered vehicles, rarely drive. At most, I use it two hours a day. And if I'm testing a vehicle, my little Leaf just sits. Yet the bills for it keep on coming.

I lease my car for about $200 a month. Add in the costs of fuel (electricity in my case), insurance and AAA coverage in case I crash, and the monthly bloodletting is closer to $450. So last year I signed up for car sharing hoping I could get my Leaf to pay its own way. In December, for the first time, it did. I rented my car to three different drivers for a total of 11 days and took in $216 – more than enough to cover the check to Nissan Motor Finance.

Personal car sharing has been legal in California since 2011, but it's only been available in Southern California since last March and through a single company – RelayRides. The only other personal car-sharing company in California operates in San Francisco and hasn't said when, or if, it will expand south.

Both companies operate similarly. Owners list their cars on a website, including the vehicles' availability and cost. I rent my car for $8 per hour, which includes fuel and 20 miles of driving. Other cars, including an older Honda Civic, rent for as little as $5. RelayRides gets 40 percent of my rate, part of which goes toward liability insurance that covers my car in case of an accident. I get 60 percent, which is paid to me monthly by check.

So far, I've made $278.40. Not bad for doing almost nothing.

The greatest effort I've expended so far has been worrying about what might happen to my little buggy after it's wheeled away from its charger into the big, wide world. I denied one renter whose travel plans seemed suspicious. Almost none of my renters have told me why, exactly, they need my car, leaving me to fret that it will be used in a terrorist plot or to ferry exotic birds from Mexico in its side panels.

RelayRides screens all its renters. If would-be renters hold a valid driver's license and haven't driven so poorly to affect their record, then they're approved. At that point, they can reserve the vehicle online or through an app. When my car is reserved, I receive a text message within seconds, to which I reply "approve" or "deny." If approved, the renter then picks up the key and drives off, returning the car to my driveway when done. Most even plug it back in.

Last year, RelayRides operated in two cities and had only 200 individuals' cars available to the 6,000 renters who'd signed up. Since March, when RelayRides went national, the number of personal cars available has expanded 40-fold and the number of cities in which it operates has ballooned to 1,200, though its main hubs are New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. Generally speaking, car sharing makes the most sense in dense urban areas where it's easy to get around without a car and to get to individuals who are willing to loan one to the carless when it's needed.

When I tell friends and family that I'm renting my car to strangers, their reactions run the gamut, from pity that I'm so desperate for money to shock that I'd take such a risk, to envy that I'd be so bold. To me, it's a contradictory, if complimentary, blend of capitalism and altruism. I'm making money by helping people who either can't afford or don't want to own a car. About two-thirds of RelayRides renters do not own a car. Their median age: 32.

I've only met about half of the people who've rented my car, and most of them were in their 20s. While they rarely say why, one woman said she wanted a longer-term test drive of an electric vehicle to see if she wanted to buy one. She did, which made me think Nissan should be sending me a check, too.

Nissan rents its Leaf hourly through an Enterprise Rent-a-Car service called WeCar. Ford has also partnered with the car-sharing company Zipcar, which owns a fleet of vehicles and rents them hourly. In fact, many major automakers are getting into the business, including Daimler, Volkswagen and BMW, all of which have launched their own car-sharing services.

General Motors has gone a step further and partnered with RelayRides because it understands "younger buyers' ability to own cars is quite different than generations before them," according to spokeswoman Annalisa Bluhm. "Millennials are delaying major life events, including car ownership. To remain part of the conversation, we put our brand at the forefront of the car-sharing experience so when they get to a point in their lives where buying a vehicle makes sense, they're used to our cars."

All General Motors vehicles equipped with OnStar can be used in conjunction with RelayRides, allowing the car's owner to give permission to a renter to unlock it using a smartphone, without the renter and vehicle owner ever having to meet.

The method I use to give my car to strangers is far more primitive. I keep the key wrapped in a bag that, to most people, probably looks like dog poop and leave it on my front step, confident it will remain untouched by anyone other than my renter, who's been clued in.

In the five months I've been renting my car, I've found some months are more lucrative than others. This month, I've only made $24. But there are two more weeks to go before Nissan needs another check.

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